The classic English public school as we know it was a Victorian invention, invented by Dr Arnold and his like with the explicit purpose of turning out Christian English Gentlemen to serve the Empire. Before this time they were much less structured and learning, both academic and ‘spiritual’ was pretty hit and miss.
From the parents point of view, along with all the points made about parents not expecting have their sons around all the time, they had the merit of leveling out social differences so the son of a rich tradesman came out looking and sounding like the son of an old landed family and plugged into the widespread “old boy” networks, ready to provide help throughout their career.
For a good fictionalised account of these processes - the change in the Victorian schools and the making of English gentlemen - Malcolm MacDonald’s Sons of Fortune is good read.
This makes it sound like it was based in the older feudal practice where a noble/knight would send his young son to live in the home of another noble/knight. There, the young man would serve as the other knight’s squire and learn what he needed to become a knight himself.
The U.S. has a number of prestigious English style boarding schools as well. There are many in New England like Andover, Groton, and Phillips Exeter. Kids get sent for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes it is all about the education, some people like the prestige and connections, some parents just want their kids out of the house and some kids insist on going because they don’t want to be at home anymore.
Both my dad and his sister ended up in boarding schools.
My grandparents were more the “get them out of the house” motivation than any other, from what I can gather.
My grandfather owned a quarry with his brother, and retired at the age of 40- he then owned and trained racehorses, again with his brothers. My granny divided her time between the paddock and the shops fairly equally. I don’t think kids featured in their lifestyle.
My dad remembers early morning swims in an unheated outdoor pool, and my aunt remembers hiding liver in a napkin. Both made lifelong friends and don’t seem to have minded much, although neither will eat anything that reminds them of school dinners (custard, jam roly poly, braised steak).
Remember that until 1870 education was not compulsory at all and whether you got any was at parents’ discretion. In an age where most people lived out their lives and died within thirty miles of where they were born you either took what the village school could offer, which was little more than elementary reading, writing and arithmetic, or were sent away to get some.
As noted above, Arnold of Rugby reinvented the English public school virtually single-handed, and, just as important, marketed it effectively to the newly moneyed middle classes (Tom Brown’s Schooldays is virtually a hagiography of Arnold, by an old pupil of his). He reformed standards of education and of morality, by which I don’t mean sexually morality, though that had its place, but the whole approach to life, with a good deal of emphasis on ‘muscular Christianity’ and manly sports and games. The surviving medieval foundations had been like savage bear pits a few years before, where the boys were left to govern themselves out of school hours and deaths from illness or bullying were not uncommon. Upper class and royal children did not attend school at all but were privately tutored.
Arnold laid down his priorities as “(1) religious & moral principles (2) gentlemanly conduct (3) intellectual ability”. In retrospect there was too much emphasis on Classics and not enough on science & technology.
It can’t have been pure hell for everyone. P.G. Wodehouse considered his time at Dulwich College (private boarding HS to us Americans) to have been the happiest days of his life. He seems to have been fairly prominent on campus, and played several sports for the school. But he says nothing about bullying, either of or by. Boarders seemed to be envied somewhat by “day boys”, or commuters.
On the other hand, at the younger levels of schooling, I can see that boarding might be scary for some younger kids.
I’ve known gay people who have been to boarding/public schools and they all attest that they’re some of most homophobic environments you could ever encounter. Yes there is a lot of same sex nookie occuring but that doesn’t mean people are broadcasting it or (shock horror) actually admitting to enjoying it.
My Dad was in the RAF and I went to a boarding school before my eighth birthday (youngest in the school). I can’t remember being scared - their were times when I was fed up (normally because I’d been told off for something or I’d been made to eat food I hated - mashed swede, yuk…) but it just seemed natural. It was just the way things were and I read stacks of kid’s stories which made it seem fun - Billy Bunter, Jennings and Derbyshire, etc. It’s the reason kids are drawn to the Harry Potter world at Hogwarts - always with your friends in your own world where adults only occasionaly intrude. What’s not to like!
On one hand, some things about the schools seem to have been very regimented, but in other ways the kids do or did seem to have a little more freedom after school hours than their counterparts would at home. At least, this is my judgment from various depictions both in fiction and in RL memoirs and biographies.
Depends largely on the school. At my first prep school every minute was accounted for except for three 15-minute breaks between classes, and about an hour before “lights out”- during which time you had to be in your dorm anyway.
As I understand it, the British “upper class” did not send their sons to boarding schools until at least the late nineteenth century and maybe not until the early twentieth century. If you had a title, your children were educated at home by tutors. If you were well-off but not yet titled, it was standard by the mid-nineteenth century to send your sons to boarding schools.
I’ve taught at a public school for the last 18 years.
It’s co-educational and also has day pupils (about 50% boy/girl and day/boarding).
The food is excellent (we have our own catering staff) and the showers are hot.
There is no corporal punishment and the staff don’t wear gowns or mortar-boards.
It costs about £20,000 ($40,000) a year to board and about £12,000 ($24,000) a year for day pupils.
The school is a registered charity and gives scholarships each year (I don’t know the exact amount, but it’s substantial).
Parents send their children to board with us because:
the class sizes are smaller than the State system* and the facilities (covering academic, sporting, art etc ) are excellent
we offer a wide range of subjects (e.g. Russian, Business Studies + Sports Science)
we have an excellent pass rate (over 95% go on to University)
some parents travel a lot
*my sister teaches in a good State School; her class sizes are around 32, ours are around 17 (the State gives her school about £3,500 / $7,000 per pupil)
I’ve read any number of biographies, autobiographies and fictional books featuring boarding school based on real experience and every single one features bullying but in none is the protagonist the bully. Yet, someone did the bullying. So you have to assume ex-bullies don’t admit it.
I’m certainly not saying Wodehouse was a bully, but it has to be a possibility.
